Scientists in the UK say they've discovered that the gene responsible for triggering happy feelings is more responsive to alcohol in some people.

It may help identify people who are susceptible to alcoholism or even help design drugs to tackle the drinking problem.

An Australian expert says it's interesting research but it's not the answer to the growing problem of binge drinking.

Simon Lauder reports.

SIMON LAUDER: Australia's drinking problem has taken a worrying turn in recent decades. The director of the McCusker Centre for Action on Alcohol and Youth, Professor Mike Daube says there's been a dramatic rise in risky drinking among young people.

MIKE DAUBE: We have a generation of young people for whom many, drinking to get drunk is part of the culture. Those who drink are drinking more and they're causing immense damage to themselves and to others.

SIMON LAUDER: Professor Daube says the trend can be explained by the ready availability and heavy promotion of cheap booze.

Now science is contributing answers on what makes some people drink more than others.

A research team at the Kings College in London investigated a gene called RASGRF-2. It found mice with the gene have a much stronger appetite for alcohol. The researchers tested this in humans by doing brain scans on more than 600 teenage boys to measure dopamine release.

They found that the boys who had more activity in the reward centre of the brain reported much more frequent drinking in later life.

Professor Gunter Schumann is the lead author of the study, which has just been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science journal.

GUNTER SCHUMANN: So essentially if you have a certain combination of genetic variants of this gene then you would be less susceptible to speak, you know, to pertain to the anticipation of reward. So if you're waiting for, if you're waiting to get something you may or may not be as excited.

Now obviously if you're more or less sensitive to the effects of reward, that in turn means that you might be more or less appreciative, so to speak, of the effects of alcohol because if you're very sensitive to it then alcohol might have a very rewarding feeling to you.

SIMON LAUDER: So in other words, those who had a particular variation on that gene drank more frequently?

GUNTER SCHUMANN: Yes and were also the ones who had a greater activation in the reward area of the brain.

SIMON LAUDER: Professor Schumann says this genetic explanation for alcoholism could help identify people who are susceptible and may lead to drugs to help prevent the problem.

Professor Mike Daube says the finding needs to be put in perspective.

MIKE DAUBE: This is useful and interesting research but it's not the answer to our problems, probably for the next decade or two or three. It also should absolutely not stop us from doing the things we need to do.

SIMON LAUDER: Professor Daube says genetic research helps understand the problem of binge drinking, but it shouldn't distract from more immediate solutions.

MIKE DAUBE: We need to deal with price, we need to deal with access and the ready availability of alcohol for young people, we need to deal with the way that alcohol is being very heavily promoted and we need to get to the culture of peer pressure among young people where so many of them think that getting drunk is the right thing to do.

Genetic research may help us over time, this is still theoretical, it hasn't provided any answers to anything and let's get on with the business of reducing the alcohol problems that our society faces.

EMILY BOURKE: The Director of the McCusker Centre for Action on Alcohol and Youth, Professor Mike Daube, speaking to Simon Lauder.